Last night, in the middle of a talk I was giving on living with authentic purpose, a student in the audience asked me, …”but Zach… where do I even start!?”

I suppose I did not start the talk on a light note. Right before this question was asked, I had suggested that we should all start our day asking ourselves one simple question:

Why am I on the planet right now?

Sounds easy to ask, but tough to answer. Or is it?

I recently read an anonymous quote that offered me great insight into where we can start our journey toward living and working with authentic purpose. And we can start right now.

It reads:

 “Success is finding a meaningful need and filling it better than anyone else.” 

Right now, at your computer, you can start.

• What is a meaningful need in this world that you can fill?
• More simply, what bothers you?
• What do you think needs to change?
• When you are driving around town, what do you think could be better?
• Before you go to bed, what do you think about?
• If you could be doing anything today, and did not have to worry about money, what would you do?

When you find this need, that nagging voice that pulls you in a specific direction, hold it tight. Write it down. Post it on your wall. Tell everyone.

Now spend your time and your life relentlessly pursuing the fulfillment of that need, and do it better than anyone else.

This may be true success.

– Zach